Actionable Customization Feedback

Games Halo Infinite
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Intro
In this post I’m going to describe some issues with customization, how it alienates many players, and ways it can improve while still retaining a model which enables monetization.

I’ll start by saying I really love many of the game mechanics; I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed playing. Unfortunately, this experieince is considerably dampened, and a lot of time I could have been trying to enjoy it, I’ve been too busy trawling twitter, youtube, and the Waypoint forums to see how the community is reacting to this particular issue and what response 343i has given. 343 has been diligent to respond to people’s concerns over the battle pass and it’s experieince/challenge system, but this isn’t about that.

The Broken Promise
Leading up to the release of the game, the Developers explicitly made a point of “player expression” being an important element of the game, with the phrase “be your own Spartan” being thrown around a decent bit. It’s clear that the developers built the game with this intention, especially given things like the Friend or Foe Indicator system, which enables players to see all customizations on players regardless of the team a player is on. However, what we have been delivered is not conducive to this promise at all. I would venture a guess that this is because of folks more involved with the publishing side of things than the development, but it really harms the game experieince and comes off as hostile to many players new and old.

The first and most jarring aspect of this to me is the inability to choose one’s own color scheme. Being able to choose the colors of our own Spartan is a standard since the first Halo Game (with 2 or more color slots since Halo 2). Right away we see how this element has been gutted: we are given a few basic choices to start (less choices than in any other mainline Halo game to my knowledge), of preselected colors. There are also less opening armor choices than Halo fans have been accustomed to since Halo 3 (and even Halo 2 let you be an Elite instead, giving it a wider range of customization, still). But also I recognize that ranking up and earning armor to customize your spartan is part of the intended gameplay. This gives us a window to the most problematic part of this issue: an element of intended gameplay has been all but completely buried behind a months-long (at least) paywall. Even if people pay for the battlepass and unlock everything, they still have extremely and arbitrarily limited customization options. If people don’t pay, they don’t have a way to even earn a decent selection of customization options. Not only does this aggressive monetization curtail incentive for the “free” players to continue populating the servers with the “paid” players, but in endangers the game’s lifecycle- actively alienating players; old fans and newbies alike.

How to fix this (within reason)
Honestly I think this is fairly simple, and people have been saying it since “armor coatings” were first introduced as a concept, and they’ve continued to say it since the release of this “beta”. Instead of selling/serving people pre-selected color pallets, simply let all players fill in their own “color wheel” of their armor coating, and sell premium things which can be placed on said wheel. Let players start with base colors to add to this wheel how they wish, and what can be sold instead of a pre-digested customization system is variously colored patterns and textures to go on the color wheel instead of base colors. Red zebra stripes, blue camo, steel corrugation, hot rod flames, green corrosion: these are mostly suggestions I’ve seen from others here in the Waypoint forums, and they seem like fine “premium” cosmetic choices to add to a player’s customization choices.

There is a wealth of monetization categories in this game: emblems, weapon skins, vehicle skins, that weird background behind the nameplate thing, armor effects, trinkets which hang from your weapon, kill effects, and stances. The nameplate and the emblem can (should?) even be separated if 343 sees fit, creating a whole new category (personally I yearn for the more in-depth emblem customization of past Halo games). The game doesn’t NEED to totally stop us from having any considerable “player expression” in order to make money, but as it stands now, it does.

If you’ve taken time to read this, thanks. Please let me know other ways you think customization can be opened up without compromising the economic success/longevity of the game, or other issues you have with the customization.

On a final note: As the game stands now, if I want to make my Spartan the way I've had them for years since Halo 3, it will take months- years even- to have the armor (or similar versions of it) available, to have the color scheme made available, and to have the emblem available. I do not get to "be my own spartan"- I don't even get to "buy my own spartan". I can't even be the same color scheme as my own Spartan.

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I mean it’s been less than a week, down the line there will probably be 1000s of options to choose from and players will be able to tailor their Spartan better than ever before (most players, not all).

Hard to see that right now of course, but again the game has been out a week. This is how live service games work.

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Did you read the whole post? I feel like this response completely overlooks a lot of the actual text here. I’m also not sure how long you mean by “down the line”: half a year? Years?

Most importantly, what about anything mentioned regarding throttled color customization, and the effect this has on the player base? Doesn’t it matter that some folks won’t still be playing “down the line” and will have moved on to other things because they aren’t dedicated Halo fans, and they got a bad early impression?

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People were complaining about how limiting the coating system is since the first flight, yet nothing has changed, and there has been no official response about it. At this point Microsoft clearly intends to go full steam ahead with it anyway. I’m very skeptical that they’re going to make any compromise.

Seeing as old features are now being cut up and sold as DLC we’re pretty much going to be paying for the bullets we fire out of our digital guns in Halo 6, or 7, because some PR speak garble about player freedom.

Remember that they said the coating system was a trade off, so that they could do new cool things like patterns. Well now we can look forward to paying for color palettes that we used to use in Halo 3 even when they don’t have patterns.

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I don’t mind the color skins. I wasn’t too keen when they announced them and some of them are weird but overall not too bad. The lack of available customization to free players however is jarring to say the least (I typically don’t support microtransacrions or battle passes in any game I play). Very disappointed with that. If they don’t open up some free customization or earnable items outside of battle pass. I won’t be playing for long. Waiting for campaign to drop and hoping some earnable stuff will be added with it.

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Who knows? I’m just saying that’s how live service games work. So their statement is not incorrect, you can’t expect it all at launch. The game will be better in the long run for it and Spartans are not very unique looking now but you’ll rarely see two Spartans the same in 6-18 months from now.

If players stop.pkaying because of cosmetics then thats for them, most people play games for the gameplay which is the number 1 important thing to keep people interested. If they miss out on a great game because of it then I feel and for them. The whole system is designed around this, nothing will change it. Add in the fact that feedback from players has been significantly positive.

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but Microsoft has quite literally nothing to do with it?

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Microsoft owns the publisher, and the studio making Halo Infinite. They’re absolutely calling the shots.

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Lmfao, Is that a joke?

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“You cant expect much at launch”

I mean… yeah I can, All the halo games had more accessible customizations from the get go then what is available now, you are right most people play the game for that but when I cant even make a white spartan without grinding out a pass or giving some coin for a skin we are in some pretty disrespectful practices, its anti consumer, even halo 5 for all the -Yoink!- id give it had better options to make your spartan look cool. Even the emblem system is in the same boat. Down the line I’m sure we will see 1000s of skins and that’s cool but that does not excuse giving us bare bones now and locking away basic cosmetics that have been around since the first Halo. At this point id rather pay $60 then what the system is offering. I love Halo Infinite but this is not okay

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Good constructive criticisms!
I don’t know what a good solution is, it’s kinda a difficult situation.

Feels kinda terrible to pay 60$ for campaign and still have to pay additional 40$/year for mp content. (or way more if you want all content)

I also want so state that I agree it’s not fair to blame 343. It’s obvious that they care a lot about Halo and the fans. But the fans aren’t the only people to who they have a responsibility to please. Gotta remember that Microsoft owns Halo.
I appreciate 343 for caring for the series and doing what they do.

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You might be okay with that, but most people aren’t hence why the new system is so popular and is the one being used right now. I appreciate free maps and constant support and updates instead of being able to make my Spartan White and Red. We get more variety in where the colours are applied now too.

They could let us customise everything, of course they could. It doesn’t make money though. If it doesn’t make money, it doesn’t exist. If you want to enjoy Halo for 10+ more years, something has got to give.

Halo 3 had 12 armour sets and you needed to buy a separate game to get all of them, Halo Reach cost $40 to have access to all the maps.

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Most people like what is free, yes but that doesnt make it good. People fail to realize how much of a trap it is, sure its “free” but by the end your going to be spending easily more then $60. Halo MCC had constant support and updates and free stuff all for the nice price of $60, Halo 3 was the most popular xbox live game till the dawn of the new era, seems they did just fine with 12 armor sets and map packs, the trick is companies take away things little by little till they accept the little drip feeds of content they will give out. You can’t tell me the free maps and support were hinging on giving people the option to have a colored spartan or a better emblem system.

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I’m still convinced you didn’t actually read the post, which makes this response kind of frustrating I have to say. I put more time than I would’ve liked making sure this post explains quite clearly how 343 can still make money and also grant players an actual semblance of freedom in customization. And even how not changing this can negatively impact their 10 year plan.

If you don’t want to give feedback to the actual post, and just blindly defend the decisions made without being able to consider alternatives, I don’t feel like you’re actually adding anything to the conversation.

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Halo 3 was so successful due to a lack of competition… it’s a great game yes, but there was barely anything else to play. Now so many quality games are free, it’s hard to get a lot of people to pay for a multiplayer game. They need to entice modern gamers who play a lot, usually younger players who have more free time.

It only costs more than $60 if you want it to, that’s the beauty. Everyone can enjoy Halo without the price of entry. It’s a great way to bring in new players that wouldn’t have took the plunge. It’s clear from population stats that old Halo wasn’t quite doing the trick. They added support for MCC to sample test what’s successful, what players are equipping, feedback etc etc. It’s all design to maximise profit. Which as much as you want a game to not try and entice you to spend money, it’s undeniably important for a games longevity and success in the current market.

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I did read it, but I disagree due to the armour coatings standing out significantly more than anything else in the game. They are the most marketable aspect of the game and the most attractive thing to sell to gamers. Yes, they could have given us more but it will hinder the games profitability and success. Even reducing that down to just p cuts into that market significantly.

Another solution would be to sell skins that aren’t Halo, like Fortnite. Play as Thanos or LeBron James. That’s a solution. Is it a good one, I don’t think so. I also think your idea is poor to generate consistent revenue. I’m sorry, I don’t think it would be successful. We will see though, if they sell loads of emblems and no colours maybe the store will focus more on emblems and they’ll just give us coatings for free in weekly challenges because they aren’t profitable… But the coatings will probably be the most profitable and so that won’t happen. It’s still a business at the end of the day, so your solution won’t work for them unless consumers make it a reality.

I think it is great you are constructive in your feedback though.

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I like the idea of the color wheel system. That system would make more sense and allow the different colors and patterns to be unlocked from the BP, special events and the store.

They could have new color wheel sections that can be unlocked through game play or the BP.
For instance starting color wheel sections could be a primary, secondary and a highlight-color for some armor detail. Those sections can have base colors and of course unique colors or patterns unlocked through the BP, game-play, events, promotions and the store. As you progress through the customization of your Spartan you eventually unlock a color wheel for the helmet, shoulders, chest and visors sections of your Spartan to full customize every detail. The same system can be used for emblems and they can keep the Armor coating system and designs that we have now as a quick customize option within the color wheel.

That would be a really awesome system with almost limitless options to build a unique Spartan. Another option would be to bring back Spartan ranks as a base level system for your Spartan, so the more you play you rank up the level of your Spartan, which unlocks more options and the additional color wheel sections. Man, this would be one hell of a system!! This is what I want to play!!

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In my opinion, the fix for this is simple:

  1. Provide a base set of armors/customization to everyone that allows free players to feel like they aren’t missing out on a feature set that was present in previous games. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but the battlepass should feel like “extra” customization options, not the entire customization system. Doesn’t matter if all the really cool stuff is paid content, you can still provide some different armor sets for free. And paywalling colors is stupid. Basic color customization should be free, and then you can sell materials/patterns.
  2. Tweak the challenge system so that the objectives in challenges are generic enough that they are not gated behind RNG and are not so specific that they force players to engage in a challenge meta-game instead of playing the actual game.
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You sum everything up so beautifully. Almost brings tears to my eyes.

Like you’re saying. It’s not the fact THAT 343i monetizes things. Heck, I’m not stupid. I understand that the gaming industry has changed a lot since Halo Reach and that the micro-transaction model has been proven far too profitable not to use. The issue lies in HOW they’ve decided to implement it and what impact it indirectly has had on the (lack of) content available at launch.

A more fleshed out customization system with more freedom of expression and more options available at lauch is not incompatible with monetization. I don’t want to wait months or even years after the release before they even add base items/funtions that has been in every Halo game since Halo 3.

This argument needs more attention. And I’m so glad you brought it up in such a professional and reasonable way. Kudos to you sir.

EDIT: I just want to point out that this is the best thread I’ve read so far. All of these ideas are AMAZING. So much potential! And it all builds on the game functions that 343i has already created (coatings etc.). They are actually really genuis ideas at the very core. They just need to tweak them a bit to not make players feel so limited.

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I completely agree.
It’s a shame cause, to me, the gameplay is good and I have lots of fun playing. But all the customization and progression issues drag it down.

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